**Finding Your Footing as an Automotive Journalist**

Moving forward from our previous conversation about navigating challenging times, we have an additional question from Daniel, who expressed his dream of becoming an automotive journalist. He has already uploaded three videos of his family's cars and is seeking guidance on where to go from here.

Daniel's aspiration to become an automotive journalist is a common goal among car enthusiasts, and it's great that he's taken the first step by creating content around his passion. Keith, one of our featured automotive journalists, shares his thoughts on career moves in this field. "I've been doing this for a little over a decade, and I can tell you that it's an entirely different world than when I started," Keith notes. "With YouTube, people can basically get into this on the ground floor without having to go through traditional channels."

This is indeed a significant shift in the industry. The rise of online platforms has democratized access to automotive journalism, allowing individuals with a passion for cars to share their expertise and opinions with a wider audience. Keith advises Daniel to find a unique perspective that sets him apart from others. "Find something that you have that makes you different than everyone else out there," he recommends. "It could be a particular aspect of the inside of the car, a specific brand of vehicle, or a niche topic that nobody else is covering."

**Formal Education and Networking**

While formal education can provide a solid foundation for an automotive journalism career, it's not necessarily a requirement. John, another featured journalist, shares his own experience with a public health background that ultimately led him into the world of safety journalism. "I don't want to say I'm some super genius," he chuckles. "It's a lot of luck and connections."

However, for those interested in pursuing traditional education routes, there are various programs available in journalism or related fields. A broadcast journalism degree, like John's, can be beneficial in translating into a career in automotive journalism. Freelancing and contributing to online platforms can also provide valuable experience and exposure.

**Finding Your Niche**

One of the key takeaways from Keith and John's experiences is the importance of finding a niche or area of specialization within the automotive industry. This expertise can serve as a unique selling point, making it easier to establish credibility with potential clients, including car manufacturers and dealerships.

Daniel, you have already demonstrated an enthusiasm for reviewing cars, which is a great starting point. By focusing on a specific aspect of the industry, such as interior car tech or advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), you can differentiate yourself from others and attract attention from industry professionals and enthusiasts alike.

**Advancing Your Career**

Finally, Keith emphasizes the importance of building a presence online, including YouTube, Twitter, and other social media platforms. By creating engaging content and interacting with your audience, you can establish yourself as an expert in your chosen niche and attract potential clients or opportunities.

In conclusion, becoming an automotive journalist requires dedication, passion, and a willingness to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of the industry. By finding your unique perspective, focusing on a specific area of specialization, and building your online presence, you can set yourself up for success in this exciting field.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enbefore we start the show this week we wanted to take a quick second to tell you about a new initiative we're introducing in the podcast which is our talking cars donation program for those that don't know cr is a non-profit and we're able to do all of the work we do including anonymously buying our test cards and producing this show through memberships to our website and magazine as well as through donations what the talking cars donation program will do is allow loyal talking cars fans to show support for the podcast assist in supporting the costs of producing the podcast as well as support all the work cr does to keep consumers safe you'll be able to contribute either as a one-time donation or on a monthly basis even five dollars a month really helps go to cr.org give talking cars to find out more in any event we'll keep delivering talking cars each and every week again go to cr.org give talking cars to find out more thanks for watching and enjoy the show we talk about our final test results of the 2020 range rover evoque we discuss the highly anticipated launch of the ford bronco and we answer audience questions including how do you break into the automotive journalism world next on talking cars hi welcome back to talking cars i'm jennifer stockberger i'm keith barry and i'm john linkove so we're going to start out this week with the big news of the week the highly anticipated highly teased launch of the new ford bronco so if you've watched any television this week you've seen it everywhere endorsed by celebrities on all different shows super super big deal for ford so let me just rattle off a few specs here the first out will be what ford's terming a subcompact bronco sport smaller version base engine is a 181 horsepower 1.5 liter liter turbocharged three cylinder engine optional is a 245 2 liter turbocharged four eight-speed automatic eight inches of ground clearance they're talking a lot about pricing estimated between 26 and 36 um 2021 model year out later this year availability it will be followed by a larger mid-sized bronco two and four-door versions base engines there are a 270 horsepower 2.3 liter turbocharged bore an optional 310 horsepower 2.7 liter twin turbo v6 all four of those powertrains have the ecoboost name on them really seem to be honing in on some off-road capability removable doors the ground clearance all of these things 3 500 pounds max towing capacity good things the ford co-pilot 360 suite of standard safety features which we love will be standard many many unique trims including names like big bend and black diamond outer banks badlands even a sasquatch option package you can't actually see that one right you can't see that yeah no one will ever see it so it's so you know they're absolutely just by the names alone appealing to the outdoorsy element but john go back with the history of the bronco why is this such a giant giant introduction for ford you know it's it's it's one of those epic cars vehicles from from the history and and it's one of the vehicles like the wrangler it started out kind of from a you know military desire background you know jeep was uh you know a military vehicle and ford was doing research back then seeing that people were buying surplus jeeps um you know they wanted they wanted to build something that had that kind of rugged go everywhereness but not as crude came up with the bronco which which you know was a sports utility vehicle uh you know of the era back in the 60s um it it's one of those things where it's agricultural or workhorse at best to start so you're looking at first generation you know very small wheelbase so between the wheels very short two-door you could take the roof off all fully you can make it a small little you know cab with a with a back um you know pickup truck bed almost you know with the seat back there uh you could fold the windshield down you know they they had uh it was kind of a rough and ready vehicle we tested a 1972 version along with a chevrolet blazer the international scout 2 there's a name we don't see anymore a jeep commando toyota land cruiser you know so some vehicles that you know manufacturers have kept over these decades you know you're talking 40 50 years of history um you know and and they became much more comfortable over time but even when they got into the 70s they were still truck based vehicles they were still based on pickup trucks they had you know for a while kept the uniqueness of being able to take the cap off the back um so you almost had open air so again if you look at people even the more modern toyota 4runners you know of the 90s and early 2000s you could take the cap off the back um so you could have an open-air experience but still had you know a roof and you know almost a roll cage protection area above you um i mean i we owned a bronco too as my fam and my family did um and it was again an early suv they were not common out there the the big ones were much more common in the small ones um and we use it as really the modern station wagon driving all around the you know the the northeast and even into the midwest in it and they were fun and they had split folding seats and they offered a lot of things that cars didn't particularly the all-wheel drive or the four-wheel drive of the era ability to go anywhere in all kinds of weather yeah my husband absolutely had a 73 bronco as his daily driver and says probably monthly oh gosh i wish i still had that car so he was very excited to see the launch he thought it looked great um it was one thing that struck me was that those old classics you know i've talked about i have a 67 mustang out in the garage they were hard to drive i remember that bronco had more steering play you could do this and the tires didn't do anything so to bring those names back in a modern configuration is kind of cool keith any nostalgia or or excitement about the new bronco yeah so i i think the most interesting thing is is that it it isn't a nostalgia play because when i first heard about this i was thinking uh you know for people who got their driver's licenses after the bronco stopped being kind of an off-roader and then the explorer came out and that changed everything and then people realized you don't need a you don't need a truck to to get all the the benefits of of an suv so i think for people my age who are just just a little bit younger than both of you the bronco the good the grand wagoneer those those those didn't have that that off-road uh that off-road idea but this is a different car this is something that is going to attract people regardless of the name they could have called it anything and all i've seen is just universal acclaim and excitement for this uh you see young people older people a bunch of automotive journalists are are putting their own money down and for a deposit for one of these things so that's really cool so i think by moving away from nostalgia and not just you know slapping a nostalgic name on something blazer um you know building something that people want i i think that this will transcend that so the people who remember their 73 bronco and the people who you know might might not want a wrangler but the escape is a little too you know soft in terms of looks are also going to really go after this after this vehicle yeah so so obviously it's it's drawn so much excitement they did such a good job i thought of coordinating the launch via social media television it'll be so cool to see if people like you keith who are you've now said very much younger than us have the same like it as much as those of us who have nostalgia around it so very very cool of course um ford is taking deposits on the new bronco we consumer reports have a deposit obviously we buy everything anonymously so those deposits are with an individual not as consumer reports so we will be getting both the bronco and the broncos sport when they are available so moving on to cars we already have and have tested um we have our final test results in of the 2020 land rover range rover evoque just rattling off some more specs again this is a 246 horsepower 2-liter four-cylinder turbo um pricing ranges from 42.6 to 56.8 with hours we did add a drive package that added blind spot assist and some other safety um a cold weather pack which gave us heated and power heated rear front and rear seats power sunroof ours came in at 56 997 um so and that's an se trim so any thoughts keith on your final impressions of the land rover range rover evoke yeah um this is this is not this is not a special car you know kind of kind of going from the bronco to this and and the sad thing about it is that when the first evoque debuted it was oh my god land rover was was was taking a concept car and and selling it to people they had the crazy convertible version they had the two-door version and then they came out with a new one and it looked exactly the same this should have been sort of a limited edition car and when the evoque first came out there weren't that many luxury small suvs now there are a ton and all the other ones out there are are pretty much better than this i mean this this was sort of the worst of every possible world in terms of the fuel economy of a much bigger suv uh slow uh you know it doesn't handle great there's nothing that's really sporty about it the looks are no longer something that are gonna attract attention and it's really expensive ugh you know that's that those are my thoughts so tell us how you really feel i do still think that the styling does draw some reactions you know i had a neighbor who was like yeah thumbs up so i do think it still does that and i think that's its major appeal um john anything to add to what keith said about the arrangement oh gosh keith hit a lot of it um i mean one of the key things that i find is from their advertising where they have a very hip cult couple in new york city like soho area and they're they're bringing a big box out of out of a store they're putting in the back their land rover range rover evoke and then they realize they can't see out the back window so they they press a button and now they have this you know the mirror that's a digital mirror electric mirror from the outside so the car is so slow the rear is so slope that this kind of normal box i mean it wasn't like they had a 90 inch flat screen tv i mean you couldn't fit that in anyways yeah well right you know so they put this box and now i said oh my gosh we can't see but if you had a toyota rav4 you'd actually be able to fit the box and see out so you know here's this utterly compromised vehicle that makes things a challenge yeah it looks great but also i was quarantined into that car i had traveled out of the state on a plane came back i had to spend 14 days at home i couldn't go into work or couldn't do anything and after the quarantine i drove it up to new hampshire and my my brother-in-law had never seen one and he's like this is a wicked awesome car i can't wait to to go for a ride let's go out in it and then he noticed how loud it was and how small it was and how you know the ride wasn't great and how it you know had turbo lag where it would delay and then launch forward and then i told him was 57 grand and he just was blown away about how it didn't do half the things that his toyota tacoma could do better for far less and that's kind of the way it is it's just it's it's like a bauble it's really nice and shiny and pretty but it doesn't really do anything there's so many other even more you know even expensive luxury compact suvs you know the x1 x2 or the audi q3 or at that price you could even get an audi q5 or a bmw x3 that nikon do it much better porsche macan that do it much better it's funny you compared to the tacoma being much better because we don't typically say that tacoma is a great on-road vehicle you know in terms of ride and everything and you're saying it's better he enjoyed it more yeah exactly yeah two things strike me about the evoke one is i've kind of gotten used to the sloppy rear windows of many many suvs as long as i feel i'm open in the front rearview cameras help etc with merging and backing up but that car feels very closed in even in the front uh the squatty side windows even the cowl of the dash you know as a big hump right in front of the driver i just feel like i'm completely closed in um kids in the rear seats those windows are very very squatty and that belt line is very very high not a great place i don't think for happy kids comfortable enough safe enough but not very happy and the other thing was the ride i'm i'm usually a proponent of getting a bit firmer ride a little more response this was pretty stiff right every joint you know on the highway was not just a slap but not just a noise but feeling of every kind of micro disturbance even so anyway so as you can tell a lot of our kind of impressions the strongest impressions of the evoke are about the livability of the car but of course we have full test results if you're interested in all the numbers and details see them at consumerreports.org so moving on to your questions as always we love them talking cars at icloud.com 30 second video clips written questions we actually have two video questions this week the first is from malik from mississippi hey consumer reports i currently drive a 2017 hyundai elantra and in the last couple months a lot of stuff has changed i recently graduated college i've moved and i actually started working like an hour away and i've realized now my launcher is not really conducive to my lifestyle the launcher is simply too small so i'm looking at getting either a bigger sedan uh suv or a truck i'm from mississippi i mean we all drive truck since down here so i'm really really familiar with it but what are some recommendations that you have for me my price range is around 35 to 40 thousand dollars thanks so first of all malik congratulations on your graduation you will forever be the graduating class of 2020 and your new job and moving so let me go to keith any good options you found for malik before replacing his elantra yeah i i think you know i know we mentioned a truck but also an suv and i think maybe there's something kind of in between there there's a car that's that's kind of caught my eye uh and and it's the uh the kia celtos it's it's an suv uh it's it's a crossover suv but it's got that kind of rugged look to it uh it is not going to be it kind of splits the difference between the elantra and a truck i i like this a lot um our full test results are online if you want to uh want to check that out but it's it's a brand new vehicle um it's it's got the all-wheel drive it's got the space um but it isn't sort of hulking and big and it doesn't really have those compromises that you might have would say like a full-size truck uh you would be able to get one really well equipped in your price range as well too so that's my recommendation so i spent a lot of time i spent a lot of time in that celtos and i also like it john any options for malik yeah there's there's always the hyundai elantra gt so it gives you the hatchback option uh of a similar car you know car you're familiar with so still small efficient car um not a sub compact not tiny but also just because you have a budget up to 30 000 doesn't necessarily mean spend 30 000 so a couple options you could look at and uh looking through some of the used car content on consumerreports.org 2017 to 2018 hyundai santa fe uh 2018 hyundai santa fe sport so you're getting a vehicle that's depreciated used car prices are much much stronger right now because of of uh of just the economy just because of covid just because of of people having there's a lot of inventory of new cars people holding onto their cars used cars they're they're they're just not as many available but still you can find those in the 20 to 25 000 range so those are a couple good options the new or the use i think yeah no that's great great i i kind of stuck with the truck um and my advice for maliki you did what he asked you followed the instructions well he didn't say just he said suv you guys are both there but um i said honda ridgeline um it's actually the truck i tried to get my husband to buy recently when we made a truck purchase and he did not do it um but great on-road manners i'm listening to malik saying he might be moving again so he gets the utility of the truck plus comfortable passengers that in in bed trunk um i think is a great um utility and for in terms of everyday driving if something needs to go in there so that was my vote for malik and brightness price range albeit new um so um those were our advice so hopefully malik we've given you some some cars to consider as you replace your elantra so our next video question is from patrick in raleigh north carolina let's see what he needs help with hi docking cars i have a question about wireless apple carplay and that is is it possible or even probable for automakers to update the infotainment systems in existing cars to be able to support this feature i have a 2018 honda core touring and it has all the system requirements near as i can tell bluetooth wi-fi location services and so i don't see any technical reason why this isn't possible but if you could let me know whether you think this is something that could happen that'd be great thanks bye so we've had similar questions on the upgrade ability if you will of carplay and android auto and keith i know you have some experience in this area so i'm going to throw this one to you yeah so patrick the good news is that your car already has carplay built in so for those of you out there who are watching this and think i want wireless carplay but my car doesn't have car play period well you're kind of out of luck in almost every case unless you've got a very select number of vehicles which can be upgraded as far as the actual uh wireless um in general generally speaking it it's more than just a software upgrade it's it's usually hardware involved as well because it is a wi-fi connection uh for carplay to take place and that has to be a dedicated separate wi-fi connection that your your phone can always be on when it's on the car because it's just it's just so much data that needs to be transferred so fast that bluetooth just isn't going to cut it um there are some aftermarket uh solutions out there that will basically it's kind of like a little box that you plug into your usb port where you would normally plug in your carplay uh usb cord uh and these cost about like 120 bucks there are a bunch of them out there they're a bunch of sort of user reviews we haven't tested them but in general the the sort of consensus is positive that there's a little bit of lagginess but it does it does allow you to keep your phone in your pocket a couple of things to keep in mind in terms of whether or not you would want this it's going to drain your battery and many newer cars that already have wireless carplay built in also have a wireless charging mat built in so you you have to take your phone out of your pocket anyways and put your you know put your phone in a certain part of the car otherwise you're going to get out of your car and your phone might be you know 20 battery or dead depending upon what it was when you got in the car the other issue is that we found with people who have wireless car play in vehicles um we've heard this from our our members and we've experienced this ourselves uh that's sometimes the handoff when you first get in the car that it isn't seamless uh and that's particularly the case in bmw's we've driven uh i've found you know if you park close enough to your house where your your phone is on your home wi-fi and then you get into the car it can sometimes the phone is like where am i in the car am i at the house what should i connect to and your in your car play doesn't work until you're you know half a mile down the road and when it doesn't work you you know what you pull over you restart the car you restart your phone it's not as easy as just plugging it in it it seems like it might be easier but the way that the technology is right now remember this is all brand new and there are software updates and hardware updates coming it might not be you know for 120 bucks if you if to you that is something which is hey i'll try it out money try one of these and see what happens but be prepared that it might be a little more finicky so so good things for patrick to consider weather even once wireless carplay at this point but but certainly some options for him so thank you very much patrick so moving on to some written questions we have from have one from jenny in virginia and she says i live in a townhouse community with no electric car charging stations and no plans to install them in the foreseeable future how practical is it to buy a car such as the new toyota rav4 prime i should also say that we do not have garages so keith this sounds actually kind of similar to your living situation so um what would you say to jenny yeah currently i'm in a similar situation and you know the rav4 prime is is an interesting choice because it's a plug-in hybrid uh and that means that if you plug it in you you have an electric car for a few miles but if you don't plug it in you have a hybrid so it's not you're never going to be left stranded um the issue is that you're going to have to check with your individual townhouse community i have a funny feeling they're going to say no we're just going to assume that that you're not going to be able to charge it at home so the thing you have to realize is that some plug-in hybrids are better as hybrids than is not and john i know you've been doing some research into into this where this might be this might be a different calculus right it might be they're they're not cheap i mean they're they're you're looking at some that are with because with the there's the xse packages there's only two versions available with the option packages you're looking at 46 50 000 suvs and that's before the the price gouging i've seen dealers adding five thousand dollars onto the car just as a market adjustment and their justification was well there's only we're only getting one and it's a very hot car um i would say that if you can get the charger fantastic at that point if you can't and you're going to be paying msrp or more at that point it really it's a rav4 i would go for a rav4 hybrid it's a it's been selling extremely well actually uh better than the regular rav4 um it's not quite a great vehicle and that they made a hybrid and made it even better uh that that's probably the sweet spot of this of this equation right now if you're looking at a rav4 and you're looking at an ev ish rav4 yeah that that was my sentiment is just go with the hybrid and don't get us wrong there's other prime type you know you think of the prius prime that don't have such a big differential between the regular hybrid and the the plug-in hybrid there's other cars that maybe that price difference isn't so big if it's still something you're interested in so great question from jenny so moving on we have an additional question from daniel thanks for keeping the show going through these crazy times they are crazy and thank you daniel my dream job has always been automotive journalist i love driving and writing about cars i have uploaded three videos of my family's cars and i'm wondering where to go from here do i just call up dealers and ask if they would allow someone to make a review for some free advertising from what you know is that a typical way of getting started so daniel we just happen to have two automotive journalists right here so i'm gonna start with you keith thoughts for daniel on career moves yeah so uh i mean i've been doing this for a little over a decade and i can tell you that it's entirely different world than when even i started that nowadays uh with youtube uh you know people can can basically get into this on the ground floor without having to go through it is and it is and it was a bit of an old boys club uh in terms of of the automotive journalism world the nice thing is that there are a lot of people out there now who can have a different perspective on things who can do that on their own so my advice to you would be to find a perspective out there that nobody else has and whether it's on a particular part of the inside of the car or a particular brand of vehicle or um you know just something you know something that you have that that makes you different than everyone else out there because again almost anyone can can go online and talk about cars most of the people who i know who are not who write about cars don't do it full-time they have another job but it once you've you've already taken the first step you've uploaded three videos um wherever you are there is probably a an automotive press group a local group that you might be able to join and hopefully they're not too closed off some of them are a little your competition we don't want you here uh but some of them are a lot more open and you'll definitely find someone who within that group who can kind of steer you in the right direction but there is there is formal education as well right yeah right oh yeah yeah yeah certainly that happened yeah i mean my i mean i have a journalism background from from college a public health background from from grad school which is sort of how i got into the world of safety also honestly a ton of luck and connections i'm not going to say i'm some super genius uh here uh it's a lot of a lot of it in the world is it is that but again for something like safety the public health background certainly helps a lot john anything to advert for um daniel you could totally go the traditional route and go to school have a you know a journalism or a broadcast journalism uh degree i have a broadcast journalism degree it translated into working for consumer reports 18 years ago um i also freelanced before that and i think that's kind of the thing is you find your niche i didn't go uh to become an auto journalist by doing everything i went and found a thing about audis i was very into audis i wrote for a club magazine for free and a website for free and and contributed where i could and then finally got you know small payments um but be an expert in something i think that's the key thing now and whether it's interior car tech safety technology you know adas the advanced driving uh advanced driver assist systems or whatever it is own that be the expert there because that gives people a reason to come to you because you know what no offense daniel you know an excited guy who wants to do this there may be 50 other excited guys who want to do the same thing and the 50 surrounding towns and why is a dealer going to give any of you a car because it's an asset that they don't want to have damage they want to know what they're going to get out of it and that's that's legit so find something that you could do that's not going to rely on on being given that borrow rent but focus on that make a presence online make a presence on youtube make a presence on twitter and like keith said um and and that would give people a reason to actually support you and help you advance your career well that was great insight i was fascinated actually to learn a little bit about how you guys got where you got so that was very very cool and the good thing is that cars have enough going on other than getting us from point a to point b where you can be expert in a number of areas so thank you daniel thank everybody for your questions again talking cars at icloud.com that will do it for this episode if you're looking for additional information on anything we talked about see the show notes keep watching keep listening and we'll see you next time youbefore we start the show this week we wanted to take a quick second to tell you about a new initiative we're introducing in the podcast which is our talking cars donation program for those that don't know cr is a non-profit and we're able to do all of the work we do including anonymously buying our test cards and producing this show through memberships to our website and magazine as well as through donations what the talking cars donation program will do is allow loyal talking cars fans to show support for the podcast assist in supporting the costs of producing the podcast as well as support all the work cr does to keep consumers safe you'll be able to contribute either as a one-time donation or on a monthly basis even five dollars a month really helps go to cr.org give talking cars to find out more in any event we'll keep delivering talking cars each and every week again go to cr.org give talking cars to find out more thanks for watching and enjoy the show we talk about our final test results of the 2020 range rover evoque we discuss the highly anticipated launch of the ford bronco and we answer audience questions including how do you break into the automotive journalism world next on talking cars hi welcome back to talking cars i'm jennifer stockberger i'm keith barry and i'm john linkove so we're going to start out this week with the big news of the week the highly anticipated highly teased launch of the new ford bronco so if you've watched any television this week you've seen it everywhere endorsed by celebrities on all different shows super super big deal for ford so let me just rattle off a few specs here the first out will be what ford's terming a subcompact bronco sport smaller version base engine is a 181 horsepower 1.5 liter liter turbocharged three cylinder engine optional is a 245 2 liter turbocharged four eight-speed automatic eight inches of ground clearance they're talking a lot about pricing estimated between 26 and 36 um 2021 model year out later this year availability it will be followed by a larger mid-sized bronco two and four-door versions base engines there are a 270 horsepower 2.3 liter turbocharged bore an optional 310 horsepower 2.7 liter twin turbo v6 all four of those powertrains have the ecoboost name on them really seem to be honing in on some off-road capability removable doors the ground clearance all of these things 3 500 pounds max towing capacity good things the ford co-pilot 360 suite of standard safety features which we love will be standard many many unique trims including names like big bend and black diamond outer banks badlands even a sasquatch option package you can't actually see that one right you can't see that yeah no one will ever see it so it's so you know they're absolutely just by the names alone appealing to the outdoorsy element but john go back with the history of the bronco why is this such a giant giant introduction for ford you know it's it's it's one of those epic cars vehicles from from the history and and it's one of the vehicles like the wrangler it started out kind of from a you know military desire background you know jeep was uh you know a military vehicle and ford was doing research back then seeing that people were buying surplus jeeps um you know they wanted they wanted to build something that had that kind of rugged go everywhereness but not as crude came up with the bronco which which you know was a sports utility vehicle uh you know of the era back in the 60s um it it's one of those things where it's agricultural or workhorse at best to start so you're looking at first generation you know very small wheelbase so between the wheels very short two-door you could take the roof off all fully you can make it a small little you know cab with a with a back um you know pickup truck bed almost you know with the seat back there uh you could fold the windshield down you know they they had uh it was kind of a rough and ready vehicle we tested a 1972 version along with a chevrolet blazer the international scout 2 there's a name we don't see anymore a jeep commando toyota land cruiser you know so some vehicles that you know manufacturers have kept over these decades you know you're talking 40 50 years of history um you know and and they became much more comfortable over time but even when they got into the 70s they were still truck based vehicles they were still based on pickup trucks they had you know for a while kept the uniqueness of being able to take the cap off the back um so you almost had open air so again if you look at people even the more modern toyota 4runners you know of the 90s and early 2000s you could take the cap off the back um so you could have an open-air experience but still had you know a roof and you know almost a roll cage protection area above you um i mean i we owned a bronco too as my fam and my family did um and it was again an early suv they were not common out there the the big ones were much more common in the small ones um and we use it as really the modern station wagon driving all around the you know the the northeast and even into the midwest in it and they were fun and they had split folding seats and they offered a lot of things that cars didn't particularly the all-wheel drive or the four-wheel drive of the era ability to go anywhere in all kinds of weather yeah my husband absolutely had a 73 bronco as his daily driver and says probably monthly oh gosh i wish i still had that car so he was very excited to see the launch he thought it looked great um it was one thing that struck me was that those old classics you know i've talked about i have a 67 mustang out in the garage they were hard to drive i remember that bronco had more steering play you could do this and the tires didn't do anything so to bring those names back in a modern configuration is kind of cool keith any nostalgia or or excitement about the new bronco yeah so i i think the most interesting thing is is that it it isn't a nostalgia play because when i first heard about this i was thinking uh you know for people who got their driver's licenses after the bronco stopped being kind of an off-roader and then the explorer came out and that changed everything and then people realized you don't need a you don't need a truck to to get all the the benefits of of an suv so i think for people my age who are just just a little bit younger than both of you the bronco the good the grand wagoneer those those those didn't have that that off-road uh that off-road idea but this is a different car this is something that is going to attract people regardless of the name they could have called it anything and all i've seen is just universal acclaim and excitement for this uh you see young people older people a bunch of automotive journalists are are putting their own money down and for a deposit for one of these things so that's really cool so i think by moving away from nostalgia and not just you know slapping a nostalgic name on something blazer um you know building something that people want i i think that this will transcend that so the people who remember their 73 bronco and the people who you know might might not want a wrangler but the escape is a little too you know soft in terms of looks are also going to really go after this after this vehicle yeah so so obviously it's it's drawn so much excitement they did such a good job i thought of coordinating the launch via social media television it'll be so cool to see if people like you keith who are you've now said very much younger than us have the same like it as much as those of us who have nostalgia around it so very very cool of course um ford is taking deposits on the new bronco we consumer reports have a deposit obviously we buy everything anonymously so those deposits are with an individual not as consumer reports so we will be getting both the bronco and the broncos sport when they are available so moving on to cars we already have and have tested um we have our final test results in of the 2020 land rover range rover evoque just rattling off some more specs again this is a 246 horsepower 2-liter four-cylinder turbo um pricing ranges from 42.6 to 56.8 with hours we did add a drive package that added blind spot assist and some other safety um a cold weather pack which gave us heated and power heated rear front and rear seats power sunroof ours came in at 56 997 um so and that's an se trim so any thoughts keith on your final impressions of the land rover range rover evoke yeah um this is this is not this is not a special car you know kind of kind of going from the bronco to this and and the sad thing about it is that when the first evoque debuted it was oh my god land rover was was was taking a concept car and and selling it to people they had the crazy convertible version they had the two-door version and then they came out with a new one and it looked exactly the same this should have been sort of a limited edition car and when the evoque first came out there weren't that many luxury small suvs now there are a ton and all the other ones out there are are pretty much better than this i mean this this was sort of the worst of every possible world in terms of the fuel economy of a much bigger suv uh slow uh you know it doesn't handle great there's nothing that's really sporty about it the looks are no longer something that are gonna attract attention and it's really expensive ugh you know that's that those are my thoughts so tell us how you really feel i do still think that the styling does draw some reactions you know i had a neighbor who was like yeah thumbs up so i do think it still does that and i think that's its major appeal um john anything to add to what keith said about the arrangement oh gosh keith hit a lot of it um i mean one of the key things that i find is from their advertising where they have a very hip cult couple in new york city like soho area and they're they're bringing a big box out of out of a store they're putting in the back their land rover range rover evoke and then they realize they can't see out the back window so they they press a button and now they have this you know the mirror that's a digital mirror electric mirror from the outside so the car is so slow the rear is so slope that this kind of normal box i mean it wasn't like they had a 90 inch flat screen tv i mean you couldn't fit that in anyways yeah well right you know so they put this box and now i said oh my gosh we can't see but if you had a toyota rav4 you'd actually be able to fit the box and see out so you know here's this utterly compromised vehicle that makes things a challenge yeah it looks great but also i was quarantined into that car i had traveled out of the state on a plane came back i had to spend 14 days at home i couldn't go into work or couldn't do anything and after the quarantine i drove it up to new hampshire and my my brother-in-law had never seen one and he's like this is a wicked awesome car i can't wait to to go for a ride let's go out in it and then he noticed how loud it was and how small it was and how you know the ride wasn't great and how it you know had turbo lag where it would delay and then launch forward and then i told him was 57 grand and he just was blown away about how it didn't do half the things that his toyota tacoma could do better for far less and that's kind of the way it is it's just it's it's like a bauble it's really nice and shiny and pretty but it doesn't really do anything there's so many other even more you know even expensive luxury compact suvs you know the x1 x2 or the audi q3 or at that price you could even get an audi q5 or a bmw x3 that nikon do it much better porsche macan that do it much better it's funny you compared to the tacoma being much better because we don't typically say that tacoma is a great on-road vehicle you know in terms of ride and everything and you're saying it's better he enjoyed it more yeah exactly yeah two things strike me about the evoke one is i've kind of gotten used to the sloppy rear windows of many many suvs as long as i feel i'm open in the front rearview cameras help etc with merging and backing up but that car feels very closed in even in the front uh the squatty side windows even the cowl of the dash you know as a big hump right in front of the driver i just feel like i'm completely closed in um kids in the rear seats those windows are very very squatty and that belt line is very very high not a great place i don't think for happy kids comfortable enough safe enough but not very happy and the other thing was the ride i'm i'm usually a proponent of getting a bit firmer ride a little more response this was pretty stiff right every joint you know on the highway was not just a slap but not just a noise but feeling of every kind of micro disturbance even so anyway so as you can tell a lot of our kind of impressions the strongest impressions of the evoke are about the livability of the car but of course we have full test results if you're interested in all the numbers and details see them at consumerreports.org so moving on to your questions as always we love them talking cars at icloud.com 30 second video clips written questions we actually have two video questions this week the first is from malik from mississippi hey consumer reports i currently drive a 2017 hyundai elantra and in the last couple months a lot of stuff has changed i recently graduated college i've moved and i actually started working like an hour away and i've realized now my launcher is not really conducive to my lifestyle the launcher is simply too small so i'm looking at getting either a bigger sedan uh suv or a truck i'm from mississippi i mean we all drive truck since down here so i'm really really familiar with it but what are some recommendations that you have for me my price range is around 35 to 40 thousand dollars thanks so first of all malik congratulations on your graduation you will forever be the graduating class of 2020 and your new job and moving so let me go to keith any good options you found for malik before replacing his elantra yeah i i think you know i know we mentioned a truck but also an suv and i think maybe there's something kind of in between there there's a car that's that's kind of caught my eye uh and and it's the uh the kia celtos it's it's an suv uh it's it's a crossover suv but it's got that kind of rugged look to it uh it is not going to be it kind of splits the difference between the elantra and a truck i i like this a lot um our full test results are online if you want to uh want to check that out but it's it's a brand new vehicle um it's it's got the all-wheel drive it's got the space um but it isn't sort of hulking and big and it doesn't really have those compromises that you might have would say like a full-size truck uh you would be able to get one really well equipped in your price range as well too so that's my recommendation so i spent a lot of time i spent a lot of time in that celtos and i also like it john any options for malik yeah there's there's always the hyundai elantra gt so it gives you the hatchback option uh of a similar car you know car you're familiar with so still small efficient car um not a sub compact not tiny but also just because you have a budget up to 30 000 doesn't necessarily mean spend 30 000 so a couple options you could look at and uh looking through some of the used car content on consumerreports.org 2017 to 2018 hyundai santa fe uh 2018 hyundai santa fe sport so you're getting a vehicle that's depreciated used car prices are much much stronger right now because of of uh of just the economy just because of covid just because of of people having there's a lot of inventory of new cars people holding onto their cars used cars they're they're they're just not as many available but still you can find those in the 20 to 25 000 range so those are a couple good options the new or the use i think yeah no that's great great i i kind of stuck with the truck um and my advice for maliki you did what he asked you followed the instructions well he didn't say just he said suv you guys are both there but um i said honda ridgeline um it's actually the truck i tried to get my husband to buy recently when we made a truck purchase and he did not do it um but great on-road manners i'm listening to malik saying he might be moving again so he gets the utility of the truck plus comfortable passengers that in in bed trunk um i think is a great um utility and for in terms of everyday driving if something needs to go in there so that was my vote for malik and brightness price range albeit new um so um those were our advice so hopefully malik we've given you some some cars to consider as you replace your elantra so our next video question is from patrick in raleigh north carolina let's see what he needs help with hi docking cars i have a question about wireless apple carplay and that is is it possible or even probable for automakers to update the infotainment systems in existing cars to be able to support this feature i have a 2018 honda core touring and it has all the system requirements near as i can tell bluetooth wi-fi location services and so i don't see any technical reason why this isn't possible but if you could let me know whether you think this is something that could happen that'd be great thanks bye so we've had similar questions on the upgrade ability if you will of carplay and android auto and keith i know you have some experience in this area so i'm going to throw this one to you yeah so patrick the good news is that your car already has carplay built in so for those of you out there who are watching this and think i want wireless carplay but my car doesn't have car play period well you're kind of out of luck in almost every case unless you've got a very select number of vehicles which can be upgraded as far as the actual uh wireless um in general generally speaking it it's more than just a software upgrade it's it's usually hardware involved as well because it is a wi-fi connection uh for carplay to take place and that has to be a dedicated separate wi-fi connection that your your phone can always be on when it's on the car because it's just it's just so much data that needs to be transferred so fast that bluetooth just isn't going to cut it um there are some aftermarket uh solutions out there that will basically it's kind of like a little box that you plug into your usb port where you would normally plug in your carplay uh usb cord uh and these cost about like 120 bucks there are a bunch of them out there they're a bunch of sort of user reviews we haven't tested them but in general the the sort of consensus is positive that there's a little bit of lagginess but it does it does allow you to keep your phone in your pocket a couple of things to keep in mind in terms of whether or not you would want this it's going to drain your battery and many newer cars that already have wireless carplay built in also have a wireless charging mat built in so you you have to take your phone out of your pocket anyways and put your you know put your phone in a certain part of the car otherwise you're going to get out of your car and your phone might be you know 20 battery or dead depending upon what it was when you got in the car the other issue is that we found with people who have wireless car play in vehicles um we've heard this from our our members and we've experienced this ourselves uh that's sometimes the handoff when you first get in the car that it isn't seamless uh and that's particularly the case in bmw's we've driven uh i've found you know if you park close enough to your house where your your phone is on your home wi-fi and then you get into the car it can sometimes the phone is like where am i in the car am i at the house what should i connect to and your in your car play doesn't work until you're you know half a mile down the road and when it doesn't work you you know what you pull over you restart the car you restart your phone it's not as easy as just plugging it in it it seems like it might be easier but the way that the technology is right now remember this is all brand new and there are software updates and hardware updates coming it might not be you know for 120 bucks if you if to you that is something which is hey i'll try it out money try one of these and see what happens but be prepared that it might be a little more finicky so so good things for patrick to consider weather even once wireless carplay at this point but but certainly some options for him so thank you very much patrick so moving on to some written questions we have from have one from jenny in virginia and she says i live in a townhouse community with no electric car charging stations and no plans to install them in the foreseeable future how practical is it to buy a car such as the new toyota rav4 prime i should also say that we do not have garages so keith this sounds actually kind of similar to your living situation so um what would you say to jenny yeah currently i'm in a similar situation and you know the rav4 prime is is an interesting choice because it's a plug-in hybrid uh and that means that if you plug it in you you have an electric car for a few miles but if you don't plug it in you have a hybrid so it's not you're never going to be left stranded um the issue is that you're going to have to check with your individual townhouse community i have a funny feeling they're going to say no we're just going to assume that that you're not going to be able to charge it at home so the thing you have to realize is that some plug-in hybrids are better as hybrids than is not and john i know you've been doing some research into into this where this might be this might be a different calculus right it might be they're they're not cheap i mean they're they're you're looking at some that are with because with the there's the xse packages there's only two versions available with the option packages you're looking at 46 50 000 suvs and that's before the the price gouging i've seen dealers adding five thousand dollars onto the car just as a market adjustment and their justification was well there's only we're only getting one and it's a very hot car um i would say that if you can get the charger fantastic at that point if you can't and you're going to be paying msrp or more at that point it really it's a rav4 i would go for a rav4 hybrid it's a it's been selling extremely well actually uh better than the regular rav4 um it's not quite a great vehicle and that they made a hybrid and made it even better uh that that's probably the sweet spot of this of this equation right now if you're looking at a rav4 and you're looking at an ev ish rav4 yeah that that was my sentiment is just go with the hybrid and don't get us wrong there's other prime type you know you think of the prius prime that don't have such a big differential between the regular hybrid and the the plug-in hybrid there's other cars that maybe that price difference isn't so big if it's still something you're interested in so great question from jenny so moving on we have an additional question from daniel thanks for keeping the show going through these crazy times they are crazy and thank you daniel my dream job has always been automotive journalist i love driving and writing about cars i have uploaded three videos of my family's cars and i'm wondering where to go from here do i just call up dealers and ask if they would allow someone to make a review for some free advertising from what you know is that a typical way of getting started so daniel we just happen to have two automotive journalists right here so i'm gonna start with you keith thoughts for daniel on career moves yeah so uh i mean i've been doing this for a little over a decade and i can tell you that it's entirely different world than when even i started that nowadays uh with youtube uh you know people can can basically get into this on the ground floor without having to go through it is and it is and it was a bit of an old boys club uh in terms of of the automotive journalism world the nice thing is that there are a lot of people out there now who can have a different perspective on things who can do that on their own so my advice to you would be to find a perspective out there that nobody else has and whether it's on a particular part of the inside of the car or a particular brand of vehicle or um you know just something you know something that you have that that makes you different than everyone else out there because again almost anyone can can go online and talk about cars most of the people who i know who are not who write about cars don't do it full-time they have another job but it once you've you've already taken the first step you've uploaded three videos um wherever you are there is probably a an automotive press group a local group that you might be able to join and hopefully they're not too closed off some of them are a little your competition we don't want you here uh but some of them are a lot more open and you'll definitely find someone who within that group who can kind of steer you in the right direction but there is there is formal education as well right yeah right oh yeah yeah yeah certainly that happened yeah i mean my i mean i have a journalism background from from college a public health background from from grad school which is sort of how i got into the world of safety also honestly a ton of luck and connections i'm not going to say i'm some super genius uh here uh it's a lot of a lot of it in the world is it is that but again for something like safety the public health background certainly helps a lot john anything to advert for um daniel you could totally go the traditional route and go to school have a you know a journalism or a broadcast journalism uh degree i have a broadcast journalism degree it translated into working for consumer reports 18 years ago um i also freelanced before that and i think that's kind of the thing is you find your niche i didn't go uh to become an auto journalist by doing everything i went and found a thing about audis i was very into audis i wrote for a club magazine for free and a website for free and and contributed where i could and then finally got you know small payments um but be an expert in something i think that's the key thing now and whether it's interior car tech safety technology you know adas the advanced driving uh advanced driver assist systems or whatever it is own that be the expert there because that gives people a reason to come to you because you know what no offense daniel you know an excited guy who wants to do this there may be 50 other excited guys who want to do the same thing and the 50 surrounding towns and why is a dealer going to give any of you a car because it's an asset that they don't want to have damage they want to know what they're going to get out of it and that's that's legit so find something that you could do that's not going to rely on on being given that borrow rent but focus on that make a presence online make a presence on youtube make a presence on twitter and like keith said um and and that would give people a reason to actually support you and help you advance your career well that was great insight i was fascinated actually to learn a little bit about how you guys got where you got so that was very very cool and the good thing is that cars have enough going on other than getting us from point a to point b where you can be expert in a number of areas so thank you daniel thank everybody for your questions again talking cars at icloud.com that will do it for this episode if you're looking for additional information on anything we talked about see the show notes keep watching keep listening and we'll see you next time you\n"